Seba.Health
The Odyssey 17.356–369
the wooers broke into uproar throughout the halls; but Athena drew close to the side of Odysseus, son of Laertes, and roused him to go among the wooers and gather bits of bread, and learn which of them were righteous and which lawless. Yet even so she was not minded to save one of them from ruin. So he set out to beg of every man, beginning on the right, stretching out his hand on every side, as though he had been long a beggar. And they pitied him and gave, and marvelled at him, asking one another who he was and whence he came.
Then among them spoke Melanthius, the goatherd:
ἦ ῥα καὶ ἀμφοτέρῃσιν ἐδέξατο καὶ κατέθηκεν
αὖθι ποδῶν προπάροιθεν, ἀεικελίης ἐπὶ πήρης,
ἤσθιε δʼ ἧος ἀοιδὸς ἐνὶ μεγάροισιν ἄειδεν·
εὖθʼ ὁ δεδειπνήκειν, ὁ δʼ ἐπαύετο θεῖος ἀοιδός.
μνηστῆρες δʼ ὁμάδησαν ἀνὰ μέγαρʼ. αὐτὰρ Ἀθήνη,
ἄγχι παρισταμένη Λαερτιάδην Ὀδυσῆα
ὤτρυνʼ, ὡς ἂν πύρνα κατὰ μνηστῆρας ἀγείροι,
γνοίη θʼ οἵ τινές εἰσιν ἐναίσιμοι οἵ τʼ ἀθέμιστοι·
ἀλλʼ οὐδʼ ὥς τινʼ ἔμελλʼ ἀπαλεξήσειν κακότητος.
βῆ δʼ ἴμεν αἰτήσων ἐνδέξια φῶτα ἕκαστον,
πάντοσε χεῖρʼ ὀρέγων, ὡς εἰ πτωχὸς πάλαι εἴη.
οἱ δʼ ἐλεαίροντες δίδοσαν, καὶ ἐθάμβεον αὐτόν,
ἀλλήλους τʼ εἴροντο τίς εἴη καὶ πόθεν ἔλθοι.
τοῖσι δὲ καὶ μετέειπε Μελάνθιος, αἰπόλος αἰγῶν·